Back to the Rack
The ‘rags to riches’ Mason Rack is a born entertainer – growing up playing percussion at the age of six with his musician father Billy Rack.
Progressing to drums at age eight, Mason was able to play any style of music. For the next four years Mason developed a natural rhythm that is now part of his soul and way of life.
The popular three-piece is renowned for their amazing live stage performances.
The band has played alongside artists including Xavier Rudd, Jack Johnson, Buddy Guy and Keith Urban. Their performance at Bluesfest ‘was nothing short of spectacular.
Their crowd on Sunday morning were completely ready for something amazing. Mason Rack band in full swing. The crowd tent was some 3,000 strong, then quickly it turned into 10,000.’
Mason Rack Band play the Bangalow Bowlo on Friday. Doors: 6.15pm, show: 7.15pm. Presale: $20 +bf, door: $25.
Reggae Crew Stir the Brew
Byron’s reggae crew is coming back to the Brewery’s beergarden to mash things up!
The Boom Faya Family present – Skankstarz and The 4’ 20’ Sound – bands that have been mashing up stages around Australia with heavy skank and ground-shaking steppaz beats backed with psychedelic dubz.
From digital dancehall riddim to heavy dubz provided by The 4’ 20’ Sound to the punky reggae hip-hop fusion of the five-piece band – Skankstarz with the support of a true UK Junglist – DJ NUTZO to bring the Amen in the session.
Get ready for another massive mash up in The Brewery on Saturday from 7pm. Free entry.
Happy Groovers Get You Clappin’ Along!
If you want to witness a showcase of some of the most heartfelt and uninhibited performers in our region, guaranteed to lift your spirits, get yourself along to the album launch of the Happy Groovers, led by local music stars Chris Mallory (The Two Lions) and Jessie Vintila (Raise the Roof Choir, The Lucky Wonders).
Chris and Jessie have been working with ACCnet21 (Ocean Shores) and Multitask Day Services (Mullumbimby), who offer day-service activities to people with a disability.
The Happy Groovers are very proud to be launching their debut album, full of well-loved hits such as Imagine, This Little Light of Mine, and The Lion Sleeps Tonight. This gorgeous and diverse bunch of people with different abilities are known to rock the house and leave their audiences buzzing with the sheer joy of their zest for life. The family-friendly album launch is on Thursday 10.30am at Mullumbimby Bowling Club.
Entry is free, as is morning tea.
Connecting Heart and Earth with Peia
She is gifted with a soaring vocal range and crystalline tone, and Peia’s songs pierce the heart with bell-like clarity.
She sings with depth and beauty, moving audiences to tears and inviting listeners to reconnect with their own purpose and the heart of the earth. Peia accompanies herself on charango, harmonium, guitar and an eclectic array of percussion.
In Byron she’ll be joined by world music guitarist Shai Shriki.
‘I believe that songs live and breathe on our breath, pulsing to the rhythm of our heartbeat’, she says. ‘If not carried and sung they are lost, forgotten.
‘It is my prayer and intention to gather songs from around the world and share the story of human care, love and connection to the earth and one another.’
As a sacred-song preserver, Peia has gathered songs from indigenous traditions all across the globe, as well as their stories and teachings.
With classical music background, she later travelled and studied medieval chant, Bulgarian and Celtic folk music, medicine songs from the native peoples of North and South America, and Indian classical raga.
Peia’s original songwriting draws upon a deep well of love and respect for Mother Earth and the spirit of all life.
Peia plays Saturday at Kulchajam in Byron – 6.30pm doors open, tickets: $25 + bf. Book via: spiritfestival.com.au/peia.
And a very special workshop on Sunday 2–5pm, Mullum $42. Book via bit.ly/peialuzzi.
Voodoo For You You
Righteous Voodoo, a seven-piece band fronted by three powerful singers all hailing from the Inner West.
The Voodudes will headline at the Fringe’s Roots Rebirth Revival event at Spectrum on 19 September when they launch their first single, Bygone, an upbeat, intoxicating New Orleans-style blues tune that is guaranteed to get even the most conservative toes tapping.
The Sydney band has had a busy couple of years sharing a stage with the likes of Stan Walker, Ms Murphy, Emily Williams and Paulini, headlining Marrickville and Dulwich Hill Festivals and the Basement, and they are currently fresh off the stages of Kiama and Thredbo jazz festivals.
Having cultivated a fresh, interactive and highly entertaining live show, Righteous Voodoo has taken the next step and bunkered down in the studio to come up with this first raucous single, Bygone.
Regularly gigging at an array of Sydney venues, with a collection of smoking originals and a couple of sultry covers thrown in for good measure, and a host of surprises up their sleeves, the Voodudes are making a dent on the Sydney live scene.
If you haven’t caught them yet, check them out; your groove shoes will thank you later.
Byron Brewery on Friday from 7.30pm. Free entry.
Perky Charlie
Tex Perkins has played a key role in Australian music, with a career that has taken in everything from the ground-breaking experimental punktonica of Sydney mid-80s noiseniks Thug to the lilting, dark country of his recent material with The Dark Horses, from the hard-edged pub rock of the Beasts Of Bourbon to the evocative soundscapes of The Cruel Sea.
Tex has heralded the emergence of an entirely original yet archetypically Australian sound.
In the early 90s Perkins joined forces with the legendary Don Walker, Cold Chisel’s pianist and master songwriter, and Charlie Owen, previously Australia’s best-kept musical secret, for the unforgettable Tex, Don & Charlie.
Teaming up with Tex for this intimate show will be none other than his good friend Charlie Owen. Support by Jamie Lockhart.
Ballina RSL on Thursday. Show at 8.30pm. Tix are $30 at the club.
Dali in the Treehouse
The Hobart-based trio Dali & The Paper Band have already played many shows around Australia and abroad, including an extended stay in Switzerland for a ski season of shows.
With a bunch of new turns from jamming live they decided it was time to hibernate in the studio and craft some magic again.
Many long days passed hunkered down in remote Bruny Island Tasmania, and finally a new suitably titled EP Island was born, with a collection of the more upbeat songs written and performed by the band over the past few years.
Catch them at the Treehouse in Belongil on Thursday.
Swing Like Geyer
Renee Geyer’s past is Australian music history. Her career has spanned four decades and is still going strong. A precocious jazz, blues and soul singer in her late teens; Countdown royalty in her 20s; a string of pop, soul and reggae hits spanning the 70s and 80s; her LA years in the studio with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Sting, Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan; her 90s renaissance with Paul Kelly.
She is a singer, a songwriter, producer and author. Renee Geyer is joined by her band at the Ballina RSL on Friday.
Funny Funny
Join a whole new crop of open mic-ers at this month’s Belly Laugh at the Brewery Comedy Night. Featuring the much-loved June Hordern – a woman with more than a touch of Joan Rivers about her, crew from the Gold Coast and some of the newest talent from Mandy Nolan’s latest standup comedy graduation.
Paul McMahon joins as MC, making the journey full circle. Paul started out in one of Mandy’s comedy courses, and spent years honing his stuff at the open mic rooms.
Now a successful comic in his own right, Paul McMahon is a regular working funny bloke at clubs and pubs around the country.
Thursday at 8pm. Free Entry!
Drown in Lismore
After sell-out screenings in Sydney and Melbourne, Northern Rivers audiences are in for a treat with Screenworks’ regional premiere screening of Drown at Event Cinemas Lismore on Wednesday at 6.30pm.
Set against the stunning backdrop of Sydney’s beaches and directed by Dean Francis, Drown explores masculinity and homophobic fear through the cloistered world of competitive surf life saving.
Director Dean Francis will join Tobin Saunders at the conclusion of the screening to discuss the themes explored in the film as well as their unique approach to funding and distributing the film.
Win $500 and a 3-day ticket to the Byron Writers Festival!
Dangerously Poetic Press and the Byron Bay Writers Festival are sponsoring a national poetry prize to be awarded at the Byron Bay Writers Festival 2015 on 8 August at the Lone Goat Gallery festival event.
First prize will be $500 and a three-day ticket to the Byron Bay Writers Festival and second prize, $100 and a one-day ticket. Both poems will be published in our upcoming anthology and the winners will receive a free copy as well as have a chance to read at the festival event.
Poets are invited to write up to 40 lines on the theme Change. All poems must be received by 15 May. For details and entry forms, download from www.dangerouslypoetic.com.
SNIPPETS
OS art exhibition
Tenth Annual Ocean Shores Country Club Art Competition/Exhibition gala anniversary opening Thursday 16 April 6.30pm at the Ocean Shores Country Club. Entry fee includes drink and finger food.
Star of Monash
WWI-era play needs actors (5m, 2f). Phone or text Hamish 0415 789 804.
Bay Singers
The Bay Singers (BB Community Choir) meets Mondays 10.30–11.30 at the Community Centre each week. More info: [email protected].
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